emplation, are
exercised at once, this is perfectly concentrated Meditation (sanyama).
When the personal limitation of the perceiving consciousness stands
aside, and allows the All-conscious to come to bear upon the problem,
then arises that real knowledge which is called a flash of genius; that
real knowledge which makes discoveries, and without which no
discovery can be made, however painstaking the effort. For genius is
the vision of the spiritual man, and that vision is a question of growth
rather than present effort; though right effort, rightly continued, will
in time infallibly lead to growth and vision. Through the power thus
to set aside personal limitation, to push aside petty concerns and
cares, and steady the whole nature and will in an ardent love of truth
and desire to know it; through the power thus to make way for the
All-consciousness, all great men make their discoveries. Newton,
watching the apple fall to the earth, was able to look beyond, to see
the subtle waves of force pulsating through apples and worlds and
suns and galaxies, and thus to perceive universal gravitation. The
Oversoul, looking through his eyes, recognized the universal force,
one of its own children. Darwin, watching the forms and motions of
plants and animals, let the same august consciousness come to bear on
them, and saw infinite growth perfected through ceaseless struggle.
He perceived the superb process of evolution, the Oversoul once more
recognizing its own. Fraunhofer, noting the dark lines in the band of
sunlight in his spectroscope, divined their identity with the bright lines
in the spectra of incandescent iron, sodium and the rest, and so saw
the oneness of substance in the worlds and suns, the unity of the
materials of the universe. Once again the Oversoul, looking with his
eyes, recognized its own. So it is with all true knowledge. But the
mind must transcend its limitations, its idiosyncrasies; there must be
purity, for to the pure in heart is the promise, that they shall see God.
5. By mastering this perfectly concentrated Meditation, there comes
the illumination of perception. The meaning of this is illustrated by
what has been said before. When the spiritual man is able to throw
aside the trammels of emotional and mental limitation, and to open his
eyes, he sees clearly, he attains to illuminated perception. A poet once
said that Occultism is the conscious cultivation of genius; and it is
certain that the awaken
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